Bush medicine comprises traditional medicines used by Indigenous Australians, being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people have been using various components of native Australian flora and some fauna as medicine for thousands of years, and a minority turn to healers in their communities for medications aimed at providing physical and spiritual healing.

Traditional methods of healing have underwritten the development of non-Indigenous medicines throughout history. One notable example would be the development of a seasickness medication.

Today, traditional healers and medicines have been incorporated into modern clinical settings to help treat sick Indigenous people within some healthcare networks.

Traditional medicine has been defined as the sum of the total knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. Bush medicine is also connected to the holistic worldview in such a way that the interplay between the physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects is crucial in attaining wellbeing.

The modern world and Aboriginal cultures have differing approaches for health. Whilst conventional medicine deals with direct causes of illness and science-based views of health, the Aboriginal view on health as defined by the National Aboriginal Health Strategy considers "not just the physical well being of the individual, but the social, emotional and cultural well-being of the whole community. This is the whole-of-life view and it also includes the cyclical concept of life-death-life".

Broadly, most human societies see the manifestation of illness as natural, human or supernatural. According to Patrick Maher, the traditional Aboriginal model of illness sees social and spiritual dysfunction as a cause of illness, while supernatural intervention is regarded as the main cause of serious illness. Aboriginal concepts of illness and pain and its causes are quite different from western medicine; for example, a severe headache may be attributed to an evil spirit having taken up residence in the head. It is also believed that damage to sacred sites associated with Dreamtime mythology may cause serious illness. The basic structures and more complex systems of belief need to be understood before the role of bush medicine or traditional healers can be grasped.

Generally, bush medicine in Australia is made from plant materials, such as bark, leaves and seeds, although animal products were used as well. A major component of traditional medicine is herbal medicine, which is the use of natural plant substances to treat or prevent illness. Aboriginal remedies vary among the many Aboriginal groups in different parts of the country. There is no single set of Aboriginal medicines and remedies, just as there is no single Aboriginal language.

Herbal medicine is a major component of traditional medicine. The Aboriginal people view E. alternifolia as a medicinal plant and some carry the leaves with them. They use it to treat symptoms of the common cold and flu.